Commonly, a singulator conveyor system is used for alignment and singulation of packages, goods, and materials. An example of a singulator conveyor system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,204, hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. For example, the singulator conveyor systems are employed in packaging facilities such as courier facilities so packaging can be identified and automatically processed through sorting equipment. The singulator conveyor systems have skewed, or angled rollers to move the packages to one side of the singulator conveyor system, typically along a guard rail or an edge guide. A technique of gradually increasing a surface speed of the singulator conveyor system is used to create gaps between individual ones of the packages, resulting in the packages being aligned in a single file orientation. The most common singulator conveyor system design incorporates a lower, flat drive belt that contacts the rollers and provides drive through friction. Such a conveyor is identified by the Conveyors Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA) as a belt driven live roller conveyor (BDLR).
Because the rollers on the singulator conveyor system are not perpendicular to the side frame, a series of drive motors and drive belts are needed instead of a single drive belt in order to drive the entire length of the singulator conveyor system. The series of drive belts form wear patterns on the rollers. Since the singulator conveyor system requires the series of the drive belts, consequently, there are also a large number of moving parts resulting in significant maintenance efforts and manufacturing costs.
Additionally, as mentioned hereinabove, it is desired to vary the angles of the rollers to cause the randomly oriented articles to form the single file while traveling longitudinally along the singulator conveyor system. However, the angled conveyor rollers form a saw tooth transitional area in the conveyor system. Typically, the transitional areas are formed at an infeed end of the singulator conveyor system and an exit end of the singulator conveyor system. The saw tooth transitional areas are problematic because irregular articles catch, snag, or become otherwise damaged which may result in the blockage of a free flow of articles.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a drive system for a singulator conveyor system wherein an efficiency and a simplicity thereof are maximized and a quantity of drive motors and drive belts is minimized. Additionally, it would be desirable to provide a conveyor system and method of configuring a conveyor system to maintain product orientation and product flow on the conveyor systems.